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Court acquits unionists over German envoy attack

A Greek court has acquitted three municipal workers over an incident in which a German envoy was heckled and doused with coffee.

The three men were charged with assault and breach of the peace after German consul Wolfgang Hoelsche-Obermaier was targeted in the northern city of Thessaloniki earlier this month.

The incident took place as protesters stormed a building where Greek and German officials were meeting and pelted Hoelscher-Obermaier with coffee cups and water bottles amid chants of “Kick out the Nazis.”

A Thessaloniki court on Wednesday accepted the defendants' argument that they did not manhandle the diplomat.

Dozens of protesters, including unionists and party officials, on Wednesday gathered outside the tribunal in support of the defendants. The crowd cheered when the ruling was announced.